Hiff Eff. Full Range Fostex Driver question


I am intrigued by the recent buzz on the Cain & Cain and Omega speakers. I talked at length with Louis @ Omega yesterday and am thinking about the Grande 6s. Has anybody replaced much larger and expensive speakers with something like this? Of course I will be buying a sub to augment the bass in my small room because I do like to listen to rock/metal very loud sometimes. Will the Omegas pull this off, or is this just wishful thinking? Current speakers are Montana SP2s which I absolutely love. But I am curious about the attributes of a full range, xoverless design. Am I a candidate, or should I just shut up and be ignorant and happy?

Oz
128x128ozzy62

Showing 3 responses by miklorsmith

I built some Fostex BR 206E's. I know these aren't the optimal enclosure, but they sound mighty fine. The Fostex line is great, though they don't excel at metal/rock. In fact, I'd say these are worst with this genre and significantly better with others.

These drivers are peaky from about 1 - 4 khz which is where the guitars live. It gets grating unless you have some (hopefully minimal) circuit correction. Even then, these drivers aren't made for that.

Check out the Zu Druids. I own them. 101 db at 8 ohms. They play everything. Loud, whisper, girl with guitar, Metallica, club/dance music. They kick booty at classical too. Plus, my 6 watt amp is a titan with them.

The XOverless thing is the wave of the future. No big amp/speaker combo I've heard can touch single-drivers in transient/vocals. With the Druids, the thunder aspect you'd expect with big amp/speakers is there too.

How they can bridge the gap so seamlessly astounds me every time I turn them on. It is a paradigm shift in the making and this is not the last time you'll hear this.

FWIW my last speaks were Gallo Ref. 3's and these utterly kick the tar out of them in every way. On 6 watts. Incredible.
It's a 10-inch full ranger + supertweeter that kicks in at 12 khz with a simple resistor. So, no crossover in any way from 40 hz to 12 khz. I can't hear it there either. The highs are simply sparkling. The fostexes do a surprisingly great job in the upper registers, but they can't touch the Druids.

As far as the sub, I have a giant room (30 x 15 x 15) and these put out plenty of bass for me. Another guy I had over ordered them and said he was planning to use a sub. He's used to feeling the first octave, where I'm not. So, if you've got one you might give it a whirl. I'd guess with the speed of the mains, you'll need a top-caliber sub to keep up.

If you call Zu, I think they'll check their customer database to find out if there's someone near you that might be able to give you a demo. Might change your life. Or, you can wait for the 6moons review. Srajan will be reviewing and his praise will be much more flowing than mine.

I will NEVER let these speakers out of my house.
These are like no other full-ranger I know of (except maybe Bastanis). Pink Floyd helicopter lands in my living room at over 100 db without a hint of compression. No exaggeration. These are like nothing else you've ever heard.

They will thunder down on you plus all the niceys of other FR's. They are claimed to produce 130 db peaks and I don't know about that, but they are clean as a whistle above 100 db (measured) in my giant room.

Again - no previous experience with FR speakers will prepare you for what these can do.